Terra Branford from Final Fantasy VI, drawn on the basis of Yoshitaka Amano's character design sketches.

Playing Final Fantasy games has been an important source of inspiration for me since my time in jr. high school thirteen years ago. I started with FFVIII, then continued on to FFVII and VI before moving on to IX, X and X2.

My dream to know enough Japanese to play the original, untranslated games was finally realized last summer, when I played FFVI on a SNES emulator. Terra's story touches me deeply, for some reason. She was born with the gift of magic - half a mythical beast, half human, but she was forced to wear a slave crown that causes amnesia and to fight with the empire's magical technology, until - someone comes and takes the crown off and she starts regaining her memory.

In this image, Terra is still wearing a slave crown, surrounded by a mythical structure symbolizing the existential feeling of the Earth being surrounded by fathomless deep space. She has not yet completely awakened, but the light of the stars is already whispering to her - and the little helping spirit familiar from the FF series - a Moogle, is attending to her. Flowing from the middle of the lotuses and stirring the water, are the sacred forces of nature. Behind her is one of the spherical surveillance machines from Amano's designs - overgrown with vines, symbolizing the forces of modernity, forever unable to deal with some things.

This is the very first piece of fanart that I've ever drawn, and I was happy to start with something that has really moved me.

If you think the design of this picture looks familiar, in fact I used an older picture of mine called "Biosphere" as the basis - it also dealt with basically the same sort of feeling. kuume.deviantart.com/gallery/#…

P.S. I hope the scan looks okay, all images seem to look odd on this particular library computer that I used for scanning.

Normally I'm not into fan art, but now I have to make exception Final Fantasys (especially IV, VI - IX) were my very favorites, and great inspiration for me too. Terra was one of the great characters! Also your way to draw her is quite unique. It's not just some picture during the game reproduced, but it is a art piece, and very nice one too Love it!

Thanks a lot for the great comment! Ah yes, I wanted to make a piece of fanart that would be as dynamic as Amano's original designs, in which the world of Final Fantasies seems to be in constant dreamlike, associative movement, elaborating on old themes in such thoroughly organic way. I am so glad you like it!

This drawing seems darker than your other drawings, although Terra looks serene. I really like how you illustrated the water, it seems that the lotuses influence it, not the other way around. I have to say that it always takes time to discover all the elements in your drawings, they're so complex

Yeah, indeed, drawing with pencils makes it easier for me to work with shadowy things like this. And I think you're right about the water - really glad you liked that particular aspect. I love putting little details in my work - while looking at what I've drawn, I can forget the details and discover them again indefinitely... It's maybe cheap sort of entertainment, just looking at what I've drawn for a long time after I've finished the piece, but that's what I do. A place to get lost in and forget about the world...

I have a few that I like on my wall alright. I don't get that many visitors here, so it's okay, and in any case, I think I'm starting to be less embarrassed by my work as time goes by. You've never had an exhibition, by the way? Some libraries or other public facilities sometimes offer gallery space for free, at least around here.

I've tried to find free places to exhibit my drawings but I didn't find any, Romanians aren't very interested in art. The only reason I wanted exposure was because I believe the purpose of art is to be shared and seen by as many people as possible, I'm not willing to sell. And, in my house all the walls are unbreakable, I can't drive a single nail into them plus, no one ever visits me I'm thankful for the internet...

Even a non-game player like myself can appreciate the aesthetic qualities of the illustrations . I think you have brought out the 'slave' quality much better than the picture of her that accompanies the theme- by the by- some day when you have time, I'd really appreciate some idea of what the lyrics mean.

You continue to amaze me. Perhaps, as Tama says, you really do have two souls. At least.

Thank you for the comment. Yoshitaka Amano is one of my favourite illustrators, indeed, a great inspiration. There's something that I don't know how to express about this character, or Amano's designs in general - other that than in their quietude, and modesty with which they are a part of the natural creative forces, a subtle ether - is very unique, and very Japanese. I know the translations to the song and attempted one myself from the Japanese, but the meaning of the text is apparently very poetic. The characters in FFVI wander through a literal desert, and later on through a world of ruin distorted by the antagonist abusing the magical creatures and the powers of the earth. The subdued and suppressed power of the half-beast Terra is like that flicker of a dream in the distance, in a world where gods are no longer understood...

That does chime with the translation which comes with the video. I think I understand a little what draws you to this sort of aesthetic- the sense of something hidden, half expressed in images which constantly and fluidly change, as if one were to complete a thought with a gesture, a flower, a glance at cherry blossoms slowly falling, which only one attuned to the moment would understand...

Yeah, exactly. It's as if Terra was looking in the distance with great melancholy, not because of possessing great power that she is ashamed of, but because of feeling alienated from the very thought patterns of people around her, one with the dream world. For some reason, another song that resonates with this picture for me is Relm's theme: [link] Relm is a little orphaned girl in FFVI, who can paint literally "living" pictures of the surrounding world. There's a feeling throughout the game, of trying to find lost innocence in a fallen world, of grabbing even feeble hope in the face of disaster. A kind of Shibumi, I think.

Ah, that was beautiful- (Relm's song) I don't think I've ever heard a bagpipe played with that kind of delicacy... how to express that kind of longing- I get an image of one of last autumn's fallen leaves,dried and worn to a delicate fretwork that a careless touch would turn to dust, held in the palm of the hand.All the storms and lashing winds of winter are there, and also, yes, the dim memory of a green so pure it hurt the eyes to see, the magic of sunlight transformed.Now there it rests, a hope and a promise, perhaps, a delicate gift to be offered. Shibumi, yes.

I'm really glad you enjoyed the song, it's been playing in my head after I finished this drawing. You describe the feeling of the music so beautifully and just the way I experienced it, too. 'The dim memory of a green so pure it hurt the eyes to see', indeed. I think there is a kind of meditative tenderness in the song. (a smile)